Is she 'kind as she is fair?

For beauty lives 'with kindness.
Love doth to her eyes repair,

To help him of his blindness;
And, 'being helped, inhabits there.

Then to Silvia let us sing,
That Silvia is 'excelling;
She excels each mortal thing

Upon the dull earth dwelling:
To her let us garlands bring.

During the Song, a very different result than enjoyment is produced on Julia; for she sees that it is Proteus, serenading another lady-love! There is, immediately, no doubt of his perfidy; for, when Silvia appears at her window, Proteus himself recognizes and addresses her:

Pro. Madam, good even to your ladyship.

Sil. . . . I thank you for your music, gentlemen.
Who is that, that 'spake?

Pro. One, lady, if you knew his pure 'heart's truth,

You would quickly learn to know him by his 'voice.—
Sir Proteus, gentle lady, and your servant.

Sil. Thou subtle, perjured, false, 'disloyal man!
Think'st thou, I am so shallow, so conceitless,
To be attracted" by 'thy flattery,

That hast deceived so 'many with thy vows?
Return, return, and make thy love amends.
For me, by this pale Queen of Night' I swear,—
I am so far from 'granting thy request

That I 'despise thee for thy wrongful suit!
Pro. I grant, sweet love, that I 'did love a lady,-
But she is 'dead.

Sil. . . . Say that she 'be; yet Valentine, thy friend,
Survives; to whom, (thyself art witness,)

I am 'betrothed: and art thou not ashamed
To wrong
'him with thy importunacy?
Pro. I likewise hear that 'Valentine is dead.
Sil. And so, suppose, am 'I; for in his grave,
Assure thyself my 'love is buried too."
Pro. Madam, if your heart be so obdúrate,

Vouchsafe me yet your 'picture for my love,—
The picture that is hanging in your chamber:
To 'that I'll speak, to that I'll sigh and weep;
And to your 'shadow will I make true love.

a O. R. seducéd.

b the moon.

CO. R. her.

dinserted word,

Sil.

Pro.

well

I am very loth to be your idol, sir;
But, since you 're false, it shall become you
To 'worship shadows, and adore 'false shapes,-
Send to me in the morning, and I'll send it :
And so, good rest.

As wretches have o'er'night,
That wait for execution in the 'morn.

Exit Silvia

Exit

Proteus

Thus, the Lady Silvia, faithful to Valentine, repels the importunate addresses of the deceitful Proteus; and she now decides,under the protection of an old friend, Sir Eglamour,—to follow her lover to Mantua.

But even the base disloyalty to love that Proteus had shown. could not conquer true-hearted Julia. With the Host's assistance, she at once finds employment, (under the name of Sebastian,) as a Page to her metamorphosed lover.

And, in the meantime, as a propitiation to the Lady Silvia, Proteus orders Launce, his servant, to make a present to her of a beautiful pet dog; but this make-peace was rejected—as we learn from Launce himself.

Launce. When a man's 'servant shall play the 'cur with him, look you, it goes hard: One that I brought-up of a 'puppy! one that I saved from drowning, when three or four of his blind brothers and sisters 'went to it! I have taught him, even as one would say precisely, "Thus, 'I would teach a dog." I was sent to deliver him, as a present to Mistress Silvia from my master; and I came no sooner into the dining-chamber, but he steps me to her trencher," and steals her capon's leg. O, 't is a foul thing, when a cur cannot keep himself in 'all companies! I would have, as one should say, one that takes upon him to be a dog 'indeed; to be, as it were, a dog at 'all things. If 'I had not had more wit than he, to take a fault upon me that 'he did,—I think, verily, he had been 'hanged for 't. I have sat in the stocks, for puddings he hath stolen,-otherwise he had been executed; I have stood on the pillory, for geese he hath killed,-otherwise he had suffered for 't: ah! Crab, Crab!' 'thou think'st not of this now.

Proteus enters, followed by Julia in boy's clothes:
Pro. Sebastian is thy name? I like thee well,
And will employ thee in some service presently.

O. R. But since your falsohood shall become you well.

ba wooden dish.

• restrain. da wooden frame-work with holes for the legs. • a wooden frame or pillar with a hole for the head. f three inserted words.

Where have you been these two days, loitering? Launce. Marry, sir, I carried Mistress Silvia the 'dog you bade me.

Pro. And what 'says she to my little jewel?

Launce. Marry, she says, your dog was a 'cur; and tells you, currish thanks is good enough for 'such a present.

Pro. But she 'received my dog?

Launce. No, indeed, did she not. Here have I brought him back again.

Pro. What! didst thou offer her 'this cura from 'me? Launce. Ay, sir; the 'other squirrel' was stolen from me

Launce quickly

runs off.

by the hangman's boys in the Market-place; and then I offered her mine 'own,-who is a dog as big as 'ten of yours, and therefore the gift the greater. Pro. Go, get thee hence, and find 'my dog again: Away, I say! Stay'st thou to vex me here? A slave that, in the end, turns me to shame!-[1 -Sebastian, I have engaged thee now, Partly, that I have 'need of such a youth, That can with some discretion do my business, (For 't is no trusting to 'yon foolish lout ;) But, chiefly, for thy face and thy behaviour. Go presently, and take this 'ring with thee: Deliver it to Madam Silvia.

She loved me who delivered it to 'me.

Giving

[ring.

Jul. It seems 'you loved not 'her, to leave her token :'
She 's dead, belike?

Pro.
Not so: I'think she lives.
Jul. Alas! I cannot choose but 'pity her;
Because, methinks, that 'she loved 'you, as well
As you do love your lady Silvia.

Pro.

...

Well, give her that ring, and therewithal
This letter: That 's her chamber.-Tell my lady,
I claim the 'promise for her heavenly picture:
Your message done, hie home unto 'my chamber,
Where thou shalt find me, sad and solitary.

Jul. How many women would do 'such a message?
This ring 'I gave him, when he parted from me,
To bind him to remember my good will;
And now am I-(unhappy messenger)—

To 'plead for that, which I would not 'obtain;

R. omit cur.

ba tiny lap-dog.

O. R. I haue enter tainéd thee.

eO. R. well, delivered.

Giving letter.

Exit

[Proteus.

O. R. still an end.

f pledge of love.

To 'carry that, which I would have 'refused;

To 'praise his faith, which I would have 'dis-praised.
I am my master's true-confirmed 'love,

But cannot be 'true servant to my master,
Unless I prove false traitor to 'myself.
Yet 'will I woo for him; but yet so coldly

As, (heaven it knows,) I would not have him 'speed.

Silvia, with her Attendants, now comes from the ducal Palace, and thus the two ladies are together. The disguised Page is the first to speak:

Jul. Gentlewoman, good day! I pray you, be my mean
To bring me 'where to speak with Madam Silvia.
Sil. What would you with her,—if that 'I be she?
Jul. If you be she, I do entreat your patience

To hear me speak the 'message I am sent on.
'T is from my master; from Sir Proteus, madam.

Sil. O!-he sends you for a 'picture ?—

Ursula, bring my picture there.

The picture

Lis brought

Go, give your master this: tell him from me,
One Julia,-that his changing thoughts forget,-
Would 'better fit his chamber than this 'shadow.

Jul. Madam, please you peruse this letter.

letter.

She gives the wrong letter, but at once discovers her mistake:

Pardon me, madam; I have, unadvised,
Delivered you a paper that I should not:
'This is the letter to your ladyship.

[Give Letter.

Gives another

Sil. I pray thee, let me look on 'that again.
I will not look upon your 'master's lines:
I know they are stuffed with protestations,
And full of new-found oaths, which he will break
As easily as I do tear this paper!

[secon

Tears the second letter. Giving L ring.

Jul. Madam, he sends your ladyship this 'ring.
Sil. The more shame for him that he sends it 'me;
For I have heard him say, a thousand times,
His 'Julia gave it him at his departure.
Though 'his false finger have 'profaned the ring,
'Mine shall not do his Julia so much wrong.

Jul. I thank you, madam, that you tender her.

Poor gentlewoman! my master wrongs her 'much. Sil. Dost thow 'know her?

Jul. Almost as well as I do know 'myself.

a mediary, guide.

b kindly remember, sympathize with.

Sil. Is she not 'passing fair?
Jul. She 'hath been fairer, madam, than she 'is.
When she did think my master loved her well,
She, in 'my judgement, was as fair as 'you;
But, since she did 'neglect her looking-glass,
And threw her sun-expelling mask away,
The air hath 'starved the roses in her cheeks,
And 'pinched the lily-tincture of her face,
That now she is become . . . as black as I.
Sil. How 'tall is she?

Jul. About 'my stature; for, at Pentecost,

C

When all our pageants of delight were played,
Our youth got 'me to play the 'woman's part,
And I was trimmed in Madam Julia's gown;
And at that time I made her weep a-good."
Madam, 't was Ariadne, passioning
For Theseus" perjury and unjust flight;
Which I so lively acted with my tears,
That my poor mistress, troubled therewithal,
Wept bitterly; and, 'would I might be dead,
If 'I, in thought, felt not 'her very sorrow!
Sil. She is beholden' to thee, gentle youth.
Alas, poor lady, desolate and left!—

I weep 'myself, to think upon thy words.
Here, youth; there is my purse: I give thee this
For thy sweet 'mistress' sake, because thou lov'st her.
Farewell.

attended.

[ Exit Silvia
Jul. And she shall 'thank you for 't, if e'er you know her.-
A virtuous gentlewoman, mild and beautiful! . . .
Here is her 'picture: let me see:—I think,
If 'I had such a tire, this face of mine
Were full as lovely as is this of 'hers;
What should it be that he respects in 'her,
But 'I can make respective in 'myself,*

If this fond Love were not a 'blinded god?
O thou senseless form!

addressing

[the picture.

'Thou shalt be worshipped, kissed, loved, and adored;
And, were there 'sense in his idolatry,

'My substance should be 'statue in thy stead.
I'll use thee kindly, for thy mistress' sake

anipped (as with frost).

bO. R. was.

e Whitsuntide (fifty days after Easter). d copiously, in good earnest. e Ariadne was daughter to Minos, King of Crete: and married to f Theseus, King of Athens, who afterwards deserted her uttering violent exclamations. hO R. movéd. iO. R. beholding. k having a reference to myself.

j head-dress (tiara).